Some help on a balanced party?

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I know there have been several postings of balanced parties before and do not wish to be the annoying person with the repeated question. However, I do need help with creating a balanced but effective party. I'm getting the game for Christmas, and wish to get some pointers from some more experianced players.
Also, I was in hopes of hearing some good news on the druids. As one of my favorite classes, I was disappointed in IWD at how they kinda just reached a point where they weren't effective anymore. I'm hoping this isn't the case, and would hope to be told otherwise.

 

credentials:
This is my third time through and my first in HoF (Heart of Fury) mode (found in the config.exe).
The manual suggests strongly that you take a cleric. I would suggest a party of six because the game has a system called "Challenge Rating" that credits you with experience points based on the average level of your party; and the battles can be difficult. So, the larger the party the better chance you have of winning the battle. However, the larger the party the more trouble you may have sending your party to a particular point because if they find a path blocked, they will choose a seeming random path (that typically will not even lead to the destination -- this is normal of most of these RPG games except for BGII Amn and ToB) to get to the place you have chosen for them: the workaround for this is to set the autopauses, especially for sighting enemies.
Because of quests, you might want to take a paladin, magic user, monk and rogue with the cleric (if not an evil party, take an Ilmater cleric). Also, as the game progresses, you can add and delete members of your party and over time they will, sort of, catch up because the overall level average at the end of the game will be about 16. Your second time through, you might try using the Weimer addons that you can get from this site.
I've been on the boards a lot lately and I have decided to add a cleric and a monk to my party of 4. My current party is: Pal22/fighter4, fighter 22, Sorc21/cleric5, rogue22/fighter4, cleric 1, and monk 1. I have just started ch3 in HoF mode. I think that the max level is level 30 with the Weimer addons and all my characters should reach this level (even the 1s).
Happy gaming
IaaA

[ December 22, 2002, 07:48: Message edited by: IaaA ]

 

The base party should consist of a Fighter for holding back the enemy, a cleric for clerical healing and turning, a mage for magical offensives (be sure to have a area effect for dealing with hordes of weak enemies and dispel (cast dispel before you cast the spell protections)) and a thief for scouting and traps. The thief and cleric should be capable of holding their own as just one fighter won't cut it. You should ideally have two fighters as mage spells will run out surprisingly quickly. A second mage also helps, I reccomend being free with magic so don't hesistate to cast a spell because having to rest is better than being dead. Also elemntal resistance spells are all super handy against mages as most magic damage is elementally based. 10 points of resistance per spell adds up when it counts. On a final note I slayed in IWD by buffing my party with about five spells at a time. The technique is less efficient now but is still very effective so be sure to remeber when it counts.

 

* You don't need a pure Rogue if all he'll be doing is finding and disarming traps. *
--> Give some other character a few levels of Rogue.

* A pure wizard will very often be without spells (or only have one or two) at his highest spell level since the scrolls are simply not there until later. *
--> Either multiclass the wizard and/or you can pick a race which has a serious ECL penalty, like the Drow.

Recommendation:
Tiefling Rogue-2/Diviner

* Area of Effect (AoE) spells are very powerful. *
--> Sorcerers can pound away with spell after spell and as long as they have one spell left they retain their versatility - something no other class can.
--> Clerics (especially Lathander) can make great bombardiers.

Recommendation:
Human Sorcerer (for faster access to spells)
Aasimar Sorcerer (for better stats)
Human Morninglord of Lathander (Focus on Evocation)
(I don't recommend mixing in a level of Paladin or Monk because that means you have to wait another level for better spells.)

* Two-handed weapon cause more damage and a good tank is very useful. *

Recommendation:
Half-orc Fighter-4/Barbarian, Strength 20, with 2H sword.

[ December 23, 2002, 10:42: Message edited by: Earl Grey ]

 

A single class druid is very effective in the later parts if you develop his/her physical condition.

I suggest you these characters:

Shield Dwarf Barbarian with great strength and constitution and 2H greataxe.(About 40 hp damage and over 500 hp)
Human Druid with max(18) wisdom, constitution and strength. Don't bother with shapeshifting, it's not that useful.
Drow Wizard or Aasimar Sorcerer.
Deep Gnome or Human Monk with awesome wisdom and dexterity.

 

Othairyn:

I got through the game no problem without a cleric, but the class might be lots of fun to play, but I have to say druids are loads of fun. They can fight very well, wear heavy armour, shapeshift for added fun to playing, but most importantly, they have some really loaded offencive spells.

 

So many seem to like the Monk. Maybe I'll actually include one later.
In spite of the game telling you it's difficult to distribute the stats on a Monk I think it's easy:
Str 18, Dex 18, Con 16, Int 3, Wis 18, Cha 3

Does Spell Resistance from Monk and Race stack? Svirfneblin and Drow for example. I should just test it myself but no time right now...

[ December 23, 2002, 11:24: Message edited by: Earl Grey ]

 

Yes, spell resistance stacks. That's why some of us keep telling that svirfneblin makes better monk than human. I think the only problem with this build is the lack of second skill point for either for hide or move silently.
Those are the exact stats for a human monk and here are for svirfneblin:
STR 16 INT 3
DEX 16 WIS 20
CON 18 CHA 1

Maybe STR 12 and DEX 20? Or DEX 18 CON 16...
What do you think?

 

It's pretty much all a matter of opinion, but what i like to do is make 2 great front liners(usually pure fighter and monk), a fighting rogue, a fighting cleric, and 2 magic users (i like a transmuter and a sorcerer). Give them magic users bows/x-bows, and theyre not useless when the spells run out. This way, you dont have to use spells if you dont want to, but you have plenty if you do.

 

spell resistance stacks but there is a max of 50

 

I think you are not fammiliar with the 3E spell resistance, THIS NOT %. It's like a AC angaist magic

A mage got to beat the target's Spell resistance in order that the spell does something.

"1d20+ Character Level" if it is higher than Spell resistance than the spell is succeful. Since the Max level is 30 and you cannot get higher than 20 on d20 with 50 spell resistance you have a total Imunity to magic. (20 + 30 = 50, that doen't beat a Spell resistance of 50)

[ December 30, 2002, 16:06: Message edited by: Dungeon_Master ]

 

You have a point but that is not completely true.
First, if a caster rolls 20 on his/her roll, that roll counts to be successful whatever the target's spell resistance. On the other hand, "20+30=50" will beat a spell resistance of 50 but not 51.(Not to mention a 20 always hits.)

 

is that so? I though in the PHB it say when you get the exact number on DC, AC, SP or whatever it's a failure? anyway the chance to get 20 on a 1d20 and having a level 30 mage (or any spell caster) isn't common to all player.

 

Yeah, that's for sure...